Imperial bank shareholders want transparency in CBK, NIC deal

By Steve Umidha

The shareholders of Imperial Bank are calling for a systematic transparency around their involvement and acquisition of the bank’s assets.

Depositors of the collapsed bank said yesterday in a statement that the process of acquiring the lender’s assets ‘must be at a fair price and premium,’ urging the CBK to provide to the public full extent of recoveries made to date and make it transparent.

The demands by the shareholders comes barely two days after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) picked NIC Bank as a consultant to assess quality of assets and liabilities of the collapsed bank – an announcement expected to see shareholders of the troubled lender have access to their locked-up savings.

“There must be full transparency around their involvement and any acquisition of assets must be at a fair price and premium – in order that the inherent value in the Bank’s assets will be available for return to depositors, bondholders, and creditors,” read the statement.

The regulator said NIC will acquire some deposits, assets and liabilities currently under the custody of the receiver manager, Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC).

The depositors have also expressed fears that the proposed transaction with NIC Bank does not spell out a clear roadmap and value for them saying the solution, based on CBK’s announcement was detrimental to the large depositors as it provides access to Sh2.5 million of the deposit and 40 per cent of the remaining balance that is below the recoverable value of the lender’s assets.

“In the interests of all depositors, the bondholders and all creditors, a Statement-of-Affairs has to be produced prior to any alienation of assets and information about the full extent of recoveries made to date should also be made available without further delay,” they said.

The deal between CBK and NIC bank had stated that each depositor would access a maximum of Sh1.5 million once a suspension of payments by the High Court is lifted. Ruling on the suspension is expected on July 4.

“CBK has the responsibility to guide this process in a coherent, transparent and commercially viable manner. Failure to this will only serve to delay a resolution by encouraging litigation from those stakeholders,” they said.